New Delhi:
Filmmaker Kanu Behl said that his upcoming film
Titli is a coming-of-age story that explores the patriarchy and the circle of violence running within a family.
Kanu assisted director Dibakar Banerjee on
Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! and co-wrote
LSD: Love, Sex Aur Dhokha before making his feature debut. Dibakar has produced
Titli with Yash Raj Films.
Kanu said that he was writing another film before
Titli but could not make it.
"I was writing another film for a year but I could not make it. I realised that it was a dishonest attempt. A lot was going wrong in my personal life and in panic and I was just trying to make any film. This led to a reassessment and I realised that whatever I write next has to be personal and it should come from my own experience," Kanu told PTI in an interview.
The period of introspection led to
Titli, which he co-wrote with Sharat Katariya, who made his debut as a director this year with Ayushmann Khurrana and Bhumi Pednekar's
Dum Laga Ke Haisha.
"Initially I wanted to write about this young boy wanting to run away from an elder, oppressive brother which was directly related to some of my experiences while growing up. I had a strained and difficult relationship with my father like many other young boys in North India. But a completely different thing opened up and we realised that what we thought was a film about oppression, is about family rhythm, patriarchy and circularity of same images and themes," he added.
Kanu also spoke about the plot of the film.
"There was some sort of anger that was travelling from outside into the house and then from the house to the outside world. Vikram, the elder brother, works as a security guard in a mall for 16 hours. He sees people coming and buying stuff. He sees this world of haves whereas there is no money in his house. How does that person feel? The Nirbhaya case had happened at that time and it shocked many. But it was not an isolated case," he said.
"We were trying to understand the root of that violence. We realised that this external violence of carjacking or this small petty crime was important for us in order to understand this house and its world," he added.
"In a way
Titli became a representative of the desire to break away from one's family, the struggle and sometimes the inability to do so. It is a coming-of-age film about this boy who is trying to run away from his house dominated by strong men. In some sense, he did not identify with that but in the process, he comes up against a side of himself that he did not know well. It is about this little creature coming out of its cocoon and becoming this key in the end," said Kanu.
Kanu also said that Dibakar has been an important part of the journey of making the movie that is totally opposite to the way families are portrayed in Bollywood movies.(Also Read:
Titli's 'Strong Language' Was Chopped by Half on Censor's Order)
"Dibakar has been around since the beginning. When I was writing my first script, Dibakar was like why are you writing this film? I realised that may be I need to do something else. We keep bouncing stuff to each other," said Kanu.
Kanu has travelled and won accolades at some of the best film festivals globally but he believes that the real test of the movie is with the local audience.
"There is more confidence than you would otherwise have because we know that the film works emotionally. The audience in Zurich, Germany, Chicago and Japan could identify with it. That gives you hope. But the real test is here. It is about our lives, very relatable and an emotional tale of a family. So I am keen to know how people respond to the movie here," said Kanu.
After
Titli, Kanu's next project has been titled as
Agra. The script is already in Film Bazaar Goa that runs parallel to the International Film Festival of India.
"
Agra is about this young man who is madly in love with this woman and he is desperately trying to prove to his family that she actually exists," said Kanu.
Titli features Ranvir Shorey, Shashank Arora, Shivani Raghuvanshi, Amit Sial, and Lalit Behl. It is scheduled to release on October 30.